Mirror's Edge: Nimble little minx, isn't she? (NSF56K?)

[Occulus]

Mirror'se Edge is a first-person parkour game produced by Dice and published by Electronic Arts. In Mirror's Edge, you play the character of Faith, a young woman whose sister, herself a City police officer, has been falsely implicated in a high-profile murder and who is being chased by the City's police for her "involvement" in the crime.

Mirror's Edge draws heavily on the extreme sport called Parkour. Thus, in Mirror's Edge, you will control Faith as she runs, jumps, rolls, slides, and climbs her way to glory.


Faith considers the City... and her future

Much has been said about the lackluster plot Mirror's Edge brings to the table. Even fans (myself among them) admit the plot in the main game does something involving a horse's anatomy which is best left as vague as possible. However, the true value of Mirror's Edge lies in the time trials and the speedruns. In a stroke of creative genius, Dice put these features in alongside the linear plot "main game", creating crack out of what was once mere coca leaves.

In each case, the object is to move as quickly as possible through the given map. In the speedruns, the object is simply to run the maps present in the game in the shortest time possible. You can see one of these at this link.

In the time trial maps, however, there are no enemies or obstacles except the ones the map itself provides. Furthermore, you follow a red, translucent ghost of another player (yes, downloaded from the EA servers, via your EA Online account) with a faster time, the goal being to beat the ghost to the finish line. The maps in the Time Trials are sections of the maps in the main game, redone to give a fluidity to the map not necessarily present in the main game. You can see an example on YouTube if you click this link.

However, Dice realized- in part via fan input- that the game itself wasn't enough. By all accounts, according to nearly everyone who spent the time to play the game and practice it (since that's what this game requires- work, and repetition, to be able to play well), it was the fans who prompted Dice to create a pure time trial pack. The pure time trial maps ($10 retail, I believe) amount to very visually attractive boxes and blocks hanging in midair above an ocean- a sort of 3D maze with checkpoints- in which you use the mad mad skillz you've developed in the main game and 'city' time trial maps. You can see my favorite pure time trial map at this link; turn down the volume, though- no, that's not the game's music.


WOOOWEEEEWOWOW

In my opinion, this game is a success not due to its sales- which were apparently lower than hoped at first release- but by how much controversy it has created among the gaming community itself. On the one hand, the main game's plot leaves much to be desired (nevertheless, there's reportedly a sequel in the works); on the other hand, the time trials and speedruns that are a sort of built-in competitive mode vastly increase the replayability of this game.

Only time can tell whether this franchise is a success overall, but as it is, I'd say this one's worth adding to your library. The uniqueness of Mirror's Edge, combined with its alternate competitive modes, makes it worth it.


Your friendly neighborhood obstacle course awaits...

[nickgutierrez]

1. Slightly off-topic: EA is doing some incredibly smart things with online play.

Starting with Spore, I suspect, where they used the internet to set up a Sporeopedia (or something close to that) that brought other players' creatures and creations into your single-player universe. The sports games, especially, are very smart about how they integrate videos and player-generated content into the game.

[Systematic Chaos]

2. I'd hit it.

Not that my fat ass could ever catch 'er.

I do have to admit it's a pretty cool game though. :)